Mauro Javier Cárdenas, the critically-acclaimed author ofThe Revolutionaries Try Again--"an original, insubordinate novel" (New York Times)--pens a profound story of literature about a man coming to terms with his dysfunctional Colombian family, as well as his own behavior, as an immigrant in America. Antonio wants to avoid thinking about his sister--even though he knows he won't be able to avoid thinking about his sister--because his sister is on the run after allegedly threatening to shoot her neighbors, and has been claiming that Antonio, Obama, the Pentagon, and their mother are all conspiring against her. Nevertheless, Antonio is going to try his best to be as avoidant as possible, because he worries that what's been happening to his sister might somehow infect his relatively contented, ordered American life, and destabilize the precarious arrangement with his ex-wife that's allowed him to stay close to his two daughters. In fact, he's busy doing everything except facing his problems head-on: transcribing recordings of his mother speaking about their troubled life in Colombia, transcribing recordings of his ex-wife speaking about her idyllic life in the Czech Republic; writing about former girlfriends whose words and deeds still recur in his mind; rereading stories by American writers that allow him to skirt the subject of his sister's state of mind without completely destroying his own. Written in long, unravelling sentences that accommodate all the detritus of thought--scenes real and imagined, headphones and heartache, Toblerones and Thomas Bernhard--Aphasia captures the immensity of the present moment as well as the pain of the past. It cements Mauro Javier Cárdenas's place as one of the most innovative and extraordinary novelists working today.

Aphasia: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Cárdenas, Mauro Javier

United States

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

A modernist tour de force from an exhilarating new talent 
Antonio’s sister is on the run. Convinced that Antonio is conspiring with Obama, the Pentagon, and now her own neighbours, she’s disappeared. Antonio, however, is doing his best to think of anything but his sister or, for that matter, any of his problems. 
By day, he’s Antonio, father of two, recent divorcé and unenthusiastic database analyst. In private, he divides his time between visits to seedy pick-up website ‘Your Sugar Arrangements’, and hours spent combing fiction and film for examples of how to become a better father. 
As the meticulously crafted structure of his outwardly comfortable life begins to crumble, Antonio submerges himself in the lives of those who have shaped him. 
What really caused his mother to leave Antonio’s father with two young children in tow? 
What lies beneath his Czech ex-wife’s troubled, obsessive relationship with her country? 
And where does Antonio, the man, fit in all this? 
Propulsive and freewheeling, Mauro Javier Cárdenas’ second novel is a daring examination of identity in a world that seems determined to fragment us.

Aphasia

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

Oneworld Publications

Mauro Javier Cárdenas, the critically acclaimed author of The Revolutionaries Try Again--"an original, insubordinate novel" (The New York Times)--pens a profound story of literature about a man coming to terms with his dysfunctional Colombian family, as well as his own behavior, as an immigrant in America Antonio wants to avoid thinking about his sister, even though he knows he won't be able to avoid thinking about his sister, because his sister is on the run after allegedly threatening to shoot her neighbors, and has been claiming that Antonio, Obama, the Pentagon, and their mother are all conspiring against her. Nevertheless, Antonio is going to try his best to be as avoidant as possible, because he worries that what's been happening to his sister might infect his relatively contented, ordered Los Angeles life and destabilize the precarious arrangement with his ex-wife that's allowed him to stay close to his two daughters. In fact, he's busy doing everything except facing his problems head-on: transcribing recordings of his mother speaking about their troubled life in Colombia; transcribing recordings of his ex-wife speaking about her idyllic life in Czechia; writing about former girlfriends whose words and deeds recur in his mind; rereading stories by American writers that allow him to skirt the subject of his sister's state of mind without completely destroying his own. Written in long, unraveling sentences that accommodate all the detritus of thought--scenes real and imagined, headphones and heartache, Toblerones and Thomas Bernhard--Aphasia captures the immensity of the present moment as well as the pain of the past. It cements Mauro Javier Cárdenas's place as one of the most innovative and extraordinary novelists working today.

Picador Paper

Extravagant, absurd, and self-aware, The Revolutionaries Try Again plays out against the lost decade of Ecuador's austerity and the stymied idealism of three childhood friends—an expat, a bureaucrat, and a playwright—who are as sure about the evils of dictatorship as they are unsure of everything else, including each other.
Everyone thinks they're the chosen ones, Masha wrote on Antonio's manuscript. See About Schmidt with Jack Nicholson. Then she quoted from Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam, because she was sure Antonio hadn't read her yet: Can a man really be held accountable for his own actions? His behavior, even his character, is always in the merciless grip of the age, which squeezes out of him the drop of good or evil that it needs from him. In San Francisco, besides the accumulation of wealth, what does the age ask of your so called protagonist? No wonder he never returns to Ecuador.
Mauro Javier Cardenas grew up in Guayaquil, Ecuador, and graduated with a degree in Economics from Stanford University. Excerpts from his first novel, The Revolutionaries Try Again, have appeared in Conjunctions, the Antioch Review, Guernica, Witness, and BOMB. His interviews and essays on/with László Krasznahorkai, Javier Marias, Horacio Castellanos Moya, Juan Villoro, and Antonio Lobo Antunes have appeared in Music &amp; Literature, San Francisco Chronicle, BOMB, and the Quarterly Conversation.

The Revolutionaries Try Again

Humor & Satire

Coffee House Press

American Abductions

Dalkey Archive Press

Espléndido debut literario que destaca por una prosa rítmica y un estilo virtuoso que busca dramatizar el inmenso presente que lo abarca todo. Una novela que inevitablemente evoca la obra de Cortázar, Antunes, Joyce o Bolaño, con quienes ha sido comparado, posicionándolo en Estados Unidos como la gran revelación literaria latinoamericana de los últimos años.Después de casi diez años como expatriado en San Francisco, donde andaba hecho el artista, Antonio cree que puede regresar a su Guayaquil natal y salvar al Ecuador de la pobreza y la injusticia. Leopoldo le ha llamado para que se lancen juntos a la presidencia en las próximas elecciones. Ambos amigos de infancia, que compartieron fervores mesiánicos en el colegio San Javier, tienen la oportunidad de recuperar su idealismo frustrado y convertirse en el futuro de su pueblo, a pesar de ser ellos mismos hijos de funcionarios públicos que en su día contribuyeron al saqueo del país. Mientras tanto, al otro lado de Guayaquil, Rolando y Eva intentan cambiar al Ecuador a través de obras de teatro y programas de radio, aunque los tórtolos saben que sus intentos son fútiles y ridículos, como lo es casi todo en el mundo.
La historia política y social del Ecuador de las últimas décadas -la corrupción, el populismo, los desaparecidos, la hipocresía de los que se creen su élite- sirve de marco a una novela que plantea el carácter absurdo pero necesario de las creencias revolucionarias de juventud que los años erosionan. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Extravagant, absurd, and self-aware, The Revolutionaries Try Again plays out against the lost decade of Ecuador's austerity and the stymied idealism of three childhood friends—an expat, a bureaucrat, and a playwright—who are as sure about the evils of dictatorship as they are unsure of everything else, including each other. Everyone thinks they're the chosen ones, Masha wrote on Antonio's manuscript. See About Schmidt with Jack Nicholson. Then she quoted from Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam, because she was sure Antonio hadn't read her yet: Can a man really be held accountable for his own actions? His behavior, even his character, is always in the merciless grip of the age, which squeezes out of him the drop of good or evil that it needs from him. In San Francisco, besides the accumulation of wealth, what does the age ask of your so called protagonist? No wonder he never returns to Ecuador.

Los revolucionarios lo intentan de nuevo / The Revolutionaries Try Again (Spanish Edition)

Literatura Random House

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Books by Cárdenas, Mauro Javier

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cárdenas, Mauro Javier. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Aphasia: A Novel

Aphasia

Aphasia

The Revolutionaries Try Again

American Abductions

Los revolucionarios lo intentan de nuevo / The Revolutionaries Try Again (Spanish Edition)